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Evergreen Drift // 2009 ProAm

We proudly present the first ever ProAm at Evergreen Drift!

Formula Drift has stepped the game up giving the ProAm competitors a chance to prove themselves in front of thousands of fans on the same track as the pros.

Fans //

This will be the best battle ever between all the Northwest’s finest drivers going all out. Don’t miss it.

Drivers //

This is for real. Bring your A game to the big leagues and take the first step towards obtaining your FD pro license. Drivers and teams will be required to conduct themselves professionally for this event.

The top 4 finishers will receive invites to the Formula Drift ProAm Nationals on December 5 at Firebird International Raceway in Phoenix, AZ.

The top 3 podium finishers will receive product from SnapOn, Longacre Racing, and others! Every driver who pre-registers receives a gift certificate from Canyons Restaurant.

Details //

• Date - August 7th and 8th
• Location - Evergreen Speedway at the fairgrounds in Monroe, WA
• Contact - drift@evergreendrift.com
• Spectator Tickets
• Driver Registration

Fans Your Formula Drift ticket will get you into the ProAm show. Remember to show up early to catch the ProAm guys! See the FD Seattle page for additional event and ticket information. Check this Northwest Nissans thread for online ticket discount codes!

Drivers

Full driver information is available at the Evergreen Drift ProAm Page

ProAm Rules

Online Pre-Registration is open.

• Pre-Registration Form
• Pre-Reg - $350 (Closes 8/4)
• On Site Reg - $500

Presented by:

The Official Afterparty Spot of Evergreen Drift

Las Vegas ProAm // Updates!

The Evergreen Drift crew is down in force at the Las Vegas Formula Drift ProAm run by Vegas Drift.

Check out this nice overview of the fast and risky course with a ride along video from a practice session.

Friday Qualifying //

Andrew Coomes of Oregon and Roland Gallagher of Washington made the trek down and are competing with drivers from Vegas, Cali, and other locations.

Friday practice and qualifying was exciting with 1 rollover and a couple of cars dropping out due to mechanical issues.

Our guys did awesome and Roland qualified 2nd and Andrew 3rd!

The man to beat is Forrest Wang who qualified 1st.

Saturday is the tandem eliminations to determine final position and confirm who gets the invites to the ProAm Nationals at Firebird   Raceway in Phoenix .

Saturday Finals //

Andrew Coomes qualified in 4th place but was battling over heating issues, and his team thrashed all the rest of Friday to try and fix it. They bled the system (multiple times), installed better fans on the VMount, did a ghetto-fabulous hood vent with a Harbor Freight cutoffwheel, and made some ducting shroud from scrap metal found on the ground to try and master the 110 degree heat. Testing on Saturday before practice showed that the problem wasn’t fixed with temps still rapidly spiking so Andrew sat out practice to save his engine.  The lack of practice hurt him as he spun on his first lead run of the competition handing the win to Johnny Kanavas. In the consolation battle with Roland he had great lines but slower speed. He finished 4th which landed him an invite to ProAm Nationals in Phoenix.

Roland Gallagher took a step up during the Top 4 Battle with high entry speeds, sticking it to the wall. During Tandems, he was paired up with Forrest Wang in his S13.4. Unfortunately, Forrest wouldn’t allow for Gallagher to top him, taking aggressive initiations at high speeds. Gallagher straightened out in the 2nd corner. Later he was paired with Andrew Coomes, to battle out for 3rd place. Both drivers had solid runs, but Gallagher was able to impress the judges with his aggressive high speed initiations. He manage to scrap wall on initiation, dragging the bumper across the clipping point.

Johnny Kanavas and Forrest Wang paired up for the final battle. Both drivers carried high speed into the course, initiating with aggressive faints. Forrest Wang was able to carry higher speeds then Kanavas. Wang carved the walls like a surfer riding a wave. Through the tight and technical corners, Kanavas straightened out a few times. Wang took 1st place going fully locked in his fully built S13.4.

Congratulations to all drivers in 2009’s Vegas ProAm. We hope to see a few of you come up to invade Evergreen Drift.

Thanks to Nick and the Vegas Drift crew for putting on a stellar event and being great hosts!

Results//

Finals -

• 1st – #8 Forrest Wang – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation to Nationals – 1/2 inch Snap On 18v impact wrench – Custom CP Pistons, Custom Carillo Rods – 2 K&N air and oil filters – Smoked DMax taillights
• 2nd – #14 Johnny Kanavis – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation to Nationals – $1000 Check from Exedy – Longacre Temperature Compensated Digital Tire Pressure Gauge
• 3rd – #13 Roland Gallagher – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation to Nationals – 1 case of Wilwood 600 dot 4 brake fluid. 2 K&N air and oil filters
• 4th – #11 Andrew Coomes – Awarded: Formula Drift ProAm Invitation 5th -
• 5th - #7 Shawn Coward -DNF
• Jacky Sin – 0 – Crashed – Kevin from LS auto and Jacky’s team mechanic got the car put back together, both qual runs failed to maintain drift
• Andy Hateley – 0 Broke on Start 2 times
• Ron Freitas – 0 Broken Transmission
• Kelvin Arreola – 0 Crashed Out

Qualifying -

• 1st – #8 Forrest Wang 92.7
• 2nd – #13 Gallagher 74.6
• 3rd – #11 Andrew Coomes 67.7
• 4th – #7 Shawn Coward – 59
• 5th – #14 Johnny Kanavis – 58.5
• Jacky Sin – 0
• Andy Hateley -0
• Ron Freitas – 0
• Kelvin Arreola – 0

Additional photos can be found on the Vegas Proam site.
Photos from Photo Finish Media will be posted as soon as they get back and get them posted!

Yoshi Shindo - April 5th Exhibition

As many of you know, I covered the event Sunday April 5th via Twitter with behind the scene pictures. Meanwhile, Yoshi Shindo followed up on all the action by posting photos on his Flickr. Check’em out below or click here.

Behind The Scenes w. Eddi Hughes

If you haven’t caught the Twitter bug, I’d advise you to stay away. But if you feel like following me on Twitter, by all means.

Saturday April 4th, I decided to buy an iPhone. Now I’ll be eating Ramen and rice for a while, as I save up for my coilovers. I figured out that the App TwitterFon enables users to take photos with the camera and tweet them out. The announcers, Matt Risher and Ross Churlin were up in the booth getting live updates as I posted photos. If you were spectating in the grand stands, you probably heard me giving interviews and live commentary mid-drift. I apologies in advanced if I slurred my words, I couldn’t keep my breath.

This here is Ian Fournier, he’s 21, drives for Team Canada (Drift Safari), TheSkylineShop.com and DriversEdgeAutosport.com - As you can tell, he’s passionate about this sport.

Give credit to Walker Wilkerson, Mark and Gleb Antonav keep giving it their all. Team Instant Party is here to stay.

Nick, aka “Kiwi Killer” qualifies for Hellaflush, the problem is trying to get him on the site. Fail

Who’s this!? AngryEarl Smith in an S13!?

Gleb “Smoke for Days” Antonav rocking the widebody 180sx, waiting on paint.

This here is Trent Stromkins of Drift Safari, he drives for ShowStoppersUSA.com WheelsWest.ca TechnoToyTuning.com DriversEdgeAutosport.com - in the SR-Rolla, believe me: it’s fast!

The Drivers Meeting, 10:45AM Sharp!

If your serious, and you want in at ProAm, you’ll want to learn how to drift the “Big Boys Bank” aka 4th gear on the 5/8ths. Dress code strictly enforced.

Roland Gallagher of Team Instant Party not drifting, he’s just mean muggin.

Trent’s tire after 4 runs on the 5/8ths. These tires are totaled out.

Gaelen Norman from GaelenNorman.ca and covering the event.

Earl Smith from Drift Office and Tire Dogs locked & loaded!

WHOA! NO HE’S NOT!

Here’s the Mad JDM Solution.

How do you like the BN Sport Ferrari Hatch on a true 180SX? According to BN Sports Japan, there were only 10 Ferrari Hatch’s imported into the U.S.

Matt Risher, Ross Churlin, Tristan and Nicolai up in the announcers booth enjoying the view.

Well, lets just say this. April 19th is the next Open Drift event, April 26th is Round 1 of the Evergreen Drift Championship. To all the spectators, drivers, sponsors and Johnson Productions, thank you!

Open Drift - April 5th 2009

Evergreen Drift kicks off the 2009 season Sunday, April 5th!